Date
May 10, 2008
Participants
Edgar Flores, Simon Hutchinson, Munir Merchant, Kevin Nieman, Ian Sayer, Wayne Smith
Report
Four of the five players who played yesterday (see here) were joined by two new players from Silverlake. Ian Sayer and Edgar Flores were not new to the game of Subbuteo having played with their friends. Although, this was their first time using the FISTF rules of the game.
Simon Hutchinson beat Munir Merchant 2-0, which was the same score as last night. Hutchinson dominated possession in the first half as he tried to find his way through Merchant’s defense. For long periods of time it was Simon’s missed flicks and Munir blocking flicks that kept Hutchinson outside of his opponent’s shooting zone. In the seventh minute Hutchinson flicked the ball from his defensive line up to two strikers on the left side of Merchant’s shooting line. Simon pushed the ball over the shooting line. The figure Munir flicked for his defensive flick struck the ball and had to be moved ‘back’. Hutchinson took advantage of the space this left to touch up with the other striker and then shoot for goal, chipping the ball over the goalkeeper. The second half started the way the fist half had been played. In the tenth minute Simon won a free kick close to Munir’s shooting line. He pushed the ball forward over the shooting line and shot, with a supporting figure, to score. After the goal Merchant was more on the offensive in the remaining five minutes. He managed four shots, two were wide and the other two were saved by Simon’s goalkeeper.
Edgar Flores faced Kevin Nieman in his first game. Nieman’s offense dominated the first half, and Flores described his defense as “all over the place”. Kevin took the lead in the first five minutes with a shot from the left side that went over the Edgar’s goalkeeper and into the top right of the goal. Nieman scored a second before half time from the left (again) with a slow shot into the center of his opponent’s goal. Edgar did get one shot during the first half but it was wide of the goal. The second half was more even. Nieman did win two corners, and Flores won one but neither player could score. Edgar came closest with a shot from the right that glanced off the left goal post. “Kevin had more ball control,” Flores said after the game, “he can stay on top of the ball.”
Ian Sayer had drawn Wayne Smith as his opponent. The first half was described by the players as 50:50 and most of the play in the middle field to Smith’s left. Wayne scored the only goal of the first half in the tenth minute. In the second half Smith pressed harder for a second goal. It came from a throw in, followed by four or five quick flicks to push the ball over the shooting line, and as the ball almost rolled to a stop Wayne shot taking Ian so much my surprise that he did not have his hand on the goalkeeper’s rod. Smith almost added a third with just 25 seconds remaining. He pushed the ball into Ian’s penalty area but had no-one free to take the shot. At the other end of the pitch Ian did have several shots, but none were on target.
Munir Merchant beat Edgar Flores with a first half goal. Merchant had most of the possession in the first half and had two shots on goal before scoring. The shot came from the right side into the right side of the goal with a slow rolling shot. In the second half Flores played faster and more aggressively making eight shots on goal, to Munir’s two. As the half wore on it became an “end to end” game as play ebbed and flowed from one side of the pitch to the other.
In the first half of their game Kevin Nieman only managed three shots against Ian Sayer. He made all three shots count scoring the first in the seventh minute from a slow ground shot from the left. His second was a shot from the middle of the pitch into the left of the goal. The third came with just 30 seconds left in the half from a slow ground shot from the left. All the other times Kevin pressed forward he would win a corner, rather than get a shot on target. Ian starting attacking more in the second part of the second half, and with ten seconds remaining in the game had a shot that Nieman to push out for a corner with his goalkeeper.
Simon Hutchinson played a very strong seven man defensive line for the first half and kept Wayne Smith from getting any shots on goal until there was just one and half minutes left in the half. Simon had the first shot on goal that required a goalkeeper to save in the sixth minute. His shot from the right struck the side of Wayne goalkeeper, bounced off the near post, and out for a throw in on the far side. With less than two minutes left in the half Hutchinson’s defensive flick struck the ball, and his figure was moved ‘back’. Smith was left with a large space to shoot through. His shot struck the underside of the crossbar and the ball dropped into Simon’s goal. Hutchinson continued to play a strong defense in the second half, this time with six figures. There were only three shots on goal, the first two were saved by Simon’s goalkeeper. In the thirteenth minute Hutchinson missed a blocking flick that left Smith an opening to shoot through. He drove his shot high into the far side of the goal. After the game Wayne congratulated Simon for playing such a “strong defense”.
Munir Merchant scored in the second minute against Ian Sayer. Merchant pushed quickly up the right side of the pitch and scored with a chip shot over Sayer’s goalkeeper. The rest of the game was described by the players as “even”. Both made one shot on goal in the first half, but they were wide of the goal. In the second Munir’s two shots were wide of the goal, Ian’s only shot was from a tight angle and bounced off the post. The game was so evenly matched in the second half that there was a ten minute period were the players won and lost possession without the ball leaving the field of play for a goal kick or throw in.
Kevin Nieman took the lead in the fourth minute with a “slow roller” of a shot that surprised Simon Hutchinson as it crept in at the far post. After the goal Simon played very aggressively as he sought to equalizer. Just two minutes later he did score with a quickly taken chip shot from the right side into the top left of the goal. Hutchinson’s shot came so quickly that Nieman did not move his goalkeeper. The second half was disorganized as both players scattered their defensive lines. With just over one minute remaining Kevin scored with a soft rolling shot from the left side of the pitch into the right side of the goal. Simon was expecting a near post shot and could not move his goalkeeper fast enough to block the rolling shot. Now with less than a minute remaining Hutchinson played with six strikers but was unable to get the ball into his opponent’s shooting zone as Nieman defended with all ten men in his defensive formation.
Wayne Smith scored his first goal against Edgar Flores in the fourth minute with a shot from the left that went over Flores’s goalkeeper. Smith doubled his lead in the eleventh minute with a shot where the ball glanced off the left post and into the goal. Edgar had to make two saves, the first in the fourteenth minute and the second with only ten seconds left, to keep the score as 2-0 at half time. In the third minute of the second half Smith scored his third goal from a quick pass through Edgar’s defense and a rolling shot. He almost had a fourth in the sixth minute when his shot struck the goal post. Flores scored his goal shortly after with a shot from the left side of the pitch. Then just one and half minutes later Smith scored his fourth goal. His throw in on the left side of the pitch went to a player just outside the shooting zone, who passed it to a striker in the shooting zone who scored.
Simon Hutchinson pressed forward continuously in his game with Edgar Flores. Flores made a string of saves during the game to keep Hutchinson from scoring. In the fifth minute, Simon’s shot from the right gave him the lead. Edgar goalkeeping kept Simon to just one goal until there was just 30 seconds remaining in the first half when Hutchinson scored his second goal with a shot from the left side of the pitch. Simon kept applying the pressure in the second half in increasing numbers. This left his defense vulnerable to a quick break. Edgar almost scored in the seventh minute when his shot struck the post. In the tenth minute Flores forced a save from Simon’s goalkeeper with a shot from the left to the near post.
In the first half of their game Munir Merchant managed more shots on target than Kevin Nieman. Merchant struck the goal post three times, one shot was so hard that the ball ricocheted off the post and landed on another pitch. Nieman’s shots were all wide of the goal. The second half started the same way as the first, but as time wore on Kevin started to have more offense. In the fifth minute Nieman scored from a shot on the right side. There were a number of Munir’s and Kevin’s players between the ball and the goal. When Kevin shot the ball scattered all of the players, and ramped off one of them into the top of the goal. Shortly after the goal Merchant had to make a crucial save to keep a shot, from the left, out of his goal. At the end of the game Kevin complimented Munir on his defensive display. He explained how he was frustrated on numerous occasions by Munir blocking flicks. Munir considered his play in today’s game as better than it was in yesterday’s.
At half time it looked like a close game as Wayne Smith was leading Ian Sayer by 2-1. Smith had scored his first goal within 17 seconds. From the kick off he pushed the ball down into Sayer’s shooting zone and scored. His second came in the eighth minute with a shot from the left. Ian scored his goal from a build up on the left wing, he slid the ball through to the top of the “D” (above the penalty area), and his shot was low into the left corner of the goal. Sayer’s description of the second half was that it was “all Wayne”. Smith came on strong in the second half and scored four goals in the first seven minutes of the half. Ian may have been shell shocked but he managed to hold out for the remainder of the game.
Simon Hutchinson had most of the offensive play in his game with Ian Sayer, but Ian was up to it with goalkeeping. Simon had eight shots on goal, only scoring twice, the rest were saved by the goalkeeper. The first goal came in the ninth minute from a quick shot on the right into the top corner of the goal. Shortly after Hutchinson doubled his lead with another shot from the right, it struck Sayer’s goalkeeper, bounced up in the air, when it came down it struck the goalkeeper a second time, and bounced into the goal. Simon pushed most of the figures from his defensive line up to help with his offense. This allowed Ian to attack on the break forcing Simon to make two good saves to keep a clean sheet.
The first seven minutes of the game was spent in Kevin Nieman’s half of the pitch. After that Nieman had Wayne Smith scrambling to regain possession. In the first half when Smith could get the ball into his opponent’s shooting zone Nieman did enough to stop him from getting a good shot on goal. Smith struck soon after the start of the second half to score his first goal. He scored his second from the left side of the pitch, the ball was hit so hard it bounced out of the goal up to half way line.
Results
| Simon Hutchinson | 2 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Kevin Nieman | 2 | v | 0 | Edgar Flores |
| Wayne Smith | 2 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |
| Munir Merchant | 1 | v | 0 | Edgar Flores |
| Kevin Nieman | 3 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |
| Wayne Smith | 2 | v | 0 | Simon Hutchinson |
| Munir Merchant | 1 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |
| Kevin Nieman | 2 | v | 1 | Simon Hutchinson |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 1 | Edgar Flores |
| Simon Hutchinson | 2 | v | 0 | Edgar Flores |
| Kevin Nieman | 1 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Wayne Smith | 6 | v | 1 | Ian Sayer |
| Simon Hutchinson | 2 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |
| Wayne Smith | 2 | v | 0 | Kevin Nieman |